In the food processing industry, more particularly the restaurant industry, it is often necessary to cut or slice food such as fruit into wedge shaped segments for presentation to a consumer. Such wedging is commonly applied to apples, oranges, limes, lemons, and similar types of fruit.
The prior art is replete with devices for slicing food into wedge shaped segments. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,518 of Jones, for example, a food article is divided into a number of radial sections by forcing it through a conical cup of radial blades within which the food article is impaled on a central spike. The food article is forced through the radial cup of blades by a wire frame plunger assembly having legs that extend through the spaces between the blades. The plunger presses the food article through the blades thus slicing it into wedge shaped pieces. The problem with the Jones apparatus and similar devices, however, is that the core of the food item being wedged remains intact as part of the wedged pieces. In many fruits, such as apples, this core is inedible and must be cut from the wedges after the food item has been wedged.
A produce wedger of similar operation is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,280 of D'Ambro et al. In this device, a conical blade assembly is movable through a slotted perch. A food item to be wedged is placed on the perch and the blades are moved through the perch to slice the food item into wedged segments. As with the Jones device, the D'Ambro et al apparatus also successfully sections a food item but leaves the core of the food item intact. If the food item is such that the core is inedible, the core must again be manually removed from each of the wedge shaped sections prior to serving.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,973 of Tur et al shows an onion cutter that slices an onion into sections to produce a blossom-like shape that can be battered, fried, and served. While this device successfully cuts onions in this fashion, it nevertheless is not designed to and cannot slice an onion or any other food product into separate wedge shaped segments.
Accordingly, there exists a continuing and heretofore unaddressed need for food wedger that effectively, efficiently, and quickly slices food items such as apples into wedge shaped segments while simultaneously removing the core from the food item. Such a device should be compact, simple to use, easily cleanable, and should reliably remove the core from a food item each time such an item is sliced into wedge shaped sections. The wedged peripheral portion of the food item and the severed core should pass completely out of the machine after wedging. It is to the provision of such a food wedger that the present invention is primarily directed.